A special report
on transmission,
power pools, ISOs,
and the fallout from FERC Order 888."WHAT IS NEW IN THE INDUSTRY IS
not the conclusion that coordination in operations is needed to avoid chaos. What is new is that the number of players is much larger and the motivation of many key players, especially generators and large users, will be different from those who influenced grid-use policies and practices in the past."
That comment from Charles Stalon, a former commissioner in Illinois and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), sums up a conference put together in late June by Alex Henney in San Francisco, CA. A former director of the London Electricity Board, Henney now advises on competitive electric restructurings.
Sponsored by Public Utilities Reports Inc., The Management Exchange, and Henney's EEE Limited, the conference took a West Coast theme: "California Today (em The U.S. Tomorrow? Access-Pools-ISOs." Speakers and attendees debated the developing competitive power markets and the importance of planning at all levels, and came up with as many questions as they did answers.
State/Federal Flashpoints
Potential federal and state clashes can affect the best laid plans, warned Shelton M. Cannon, FERC's deputy director of the Office of Electric Power Regulation.
Cannon spoke on FERC's Order 888 and "cooperative federalism," observing that while there are no clear answers, progress toward solutions would be best promoted by cooperation between state and federal regulators. He foresees five potential state/federal jurisdictional "flashpoints."